Middle School Career and Technical Education

Middle School CTE provides an opportunity for all Maine middle school students to experience hands on learning, workplace skills and career exploration. In June of 1917 the legislature enacted law to expand career & technical education opportunities by requiring Maine Schools to provide access to developmentally-appropriate career and technical education for middle school students (grades 6-8). The Department and the legislature are working to provide adequate resources for this expansion.

CTE centers and regions will have the responsibility to oversee CTE programming. Middle schools & CTE centers/regions will be required to work together to design CTE programs for middle school students & be active partners in how these programs are structured, where they are offered & how the middle school standards will be met in the best interests of middle school students. For more information or questions please contact Margaret Harvey at margaret.harvey@maine.gov

The Law Requiring Middle School CTE

Public Law Chapter 171, "An Act To Enable Earlier Introduction of Career & Technical Education in Maine Schools," was enacted in June 2017 to expand career & technical education opportunities by requiring Maine Schools to provide access to developmentally-appropriate career and technical education for middle school students (grades 6-8). Revision of Department of Education Rule Chapter 232, currently underway in accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) process, will provide a framework to develop and implement middle school career & technical education.

The Definition of Middle School CTE

Title 20-A, section §8301-A. Definitions. 2-A. Career and technical education. "Career and technical education" means a course or program of education designed to create or improve job-related skills that is part of a secondary school or middle school level curriculum and approved by the commissioner according to this chapter. A school administrative unit shall make career and technical education available to persons residing in the school administrative unit who are eligible to receive free public secondary and middle school level education.
[ 2017, c. 171, §2 (AMD) .]

The Development of Middle School CTE Programs

Middle School CTE programs will be developed by the CTE center and region in collaboration with the middle schools in their catchment area. A CTE catchment area will have several middle school partners. The CTE experience may differ per middle school. The Middle School CTE programs will be flexible enough to accommodate the diversity of the sending schools but have common, state developed standards to follow. This enables all students the opportunity to participate in an equitable MS CTE program. A Middle School CTE program will:

Be a CTE experience not CTE promotion/recruitment.

Be more than a one-time experience

May have multiple avenues of access (Models can differ per sending school in CTE catchment area)

The Collaborations

Each CTE school will partner with the sending middle schools in their catchment area and each middle school will participate in building the middle school programs that serve them. The middle school catchment areas are determined by the same statute that governs the secondary CTE catchment areas found in Chapter 313 and State Board policy.

The Middle School CTE Pilot

The Maine Department of Education (Department) is seeking applications for grants to provide developmentally-appropriate Career and Technical Education (CTE) options to Maine public middle school level students (grade 6-8) as required by 2017 Public Law Chapter 171 and 2017 Public Law Chapter 446. This grant application requires collaboration between a CTE center or region and a school in their catchment area that has a middle school level, as defined by 20-A M.R.S. §15672(20). The school and the CTE center or region will develop a pilot as defined in the application below.

The pilots are intended to provide CTE experiences for students at the middle school level and shall provide hands-on and interactive activities focusing on middle school level opportunities. The pilots will include, but are not limited to, the Middle School CTE draft standards.